In this part we’ll look at the Node-RED flow that controls the Arduino with a 4-Relay Shield attached. As previously mentioned, these relays are used to allow us to remotely reset the All Sky Camera and HiTechAstro Wx STn, which we found had a tendency to hang and wouldn’t reset unless the USB connection was broken and remade. As we would not be in a position to unplug and re-plug the USB connections I came up with a solution. By modified some short USB extension cables and breaking into the +5v line I could then connect to the ‘Normally Closed’ contacts of one of the relays, picking the relay effectively turns off the USB device connected to that cable.
For this solution, we don’t write any code for the Arduino but do load it with Standard Firmata code that comes with the Arduino IDE.
Just open a new sketch, select the StandardFirmata from the Examples and upload to the Arduino.
Firmata is a generic protocol for communicating with microcontrollers from software on a host computer. It is intended to work with any host computer software package.
If not done already we need to go to npm and install the node-red-node-arduino nodes.
Originally I used a Dashboard Switch to select each relay, but it can get confusing when turning on the relay turns off the device attached, so I replaced the Switch with a Button node, pass the message to a Trigger node that will activate for 7 seconds (give the OS time to recognize the USB device has been disconnected), debounce the signal before passing onto the Arduino Output node which connects to the local Arduino and writes to the selected digital pin turning the relevant Relay On.
As there are only a few basic nodes in this flow, here are some snapshots of how each is set-up:
So the above covers the two relays that are used to reset the All Sky Camera and HiTechAsto Wx Stn. The same building blocks are used to control a pair of battery power LED worklights to provide illumination for the Web Cameras we have dotted around the dome and on the mount. After inadvertently leaving the lights on, on one occasion, the batteries needed to be replaced after a single use. So now in addition to having switches control the lights, we also have Buttons to push for preset times on of 1, 3, 7 or 10 minutes, with an option to turn them off early.
Wrapping up for today
Here’s the Node-RED flow for the Relay Shield
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